Volunteer with APS

Volunteers make a difference in their schools and community. Learn about volunteer opportunities in APS and get assistance with the Volunteer Background Clearance Application.

Making a Difference

Thank you for volunteering your time and talents with the students at Albuquerque Public Schools! We value family and community engagement in schools and believe that volunteer involvement can have a positive impact on a child's education.

Each school has varying needs, ranging from advocacy/advisory support, instructional support, or support services.  Please contact your school directly to find out how you can make a difference.

Types of Background Clearances

While encouraging family and community participation, we must consider the safety of every child in the district. State law requires a background check from volunteers before participating in any volunteer activity at any APS school.

There are two categories of volunteers who receive differing levels of background check clearances and badging:

Unsupervised School Volunteers

Unsupervised School Volunteers have unsupervised access to student.

• If your volunteer role requires unsupervised access to children, including unsupervised access to students during field trips, you will need an Unsupervised School Volunteer Full FBI Fingerprint clearance initiated by the principal or the principal's designee.
• Please contact your school's volunteer coordinator, clerk or principal to initiate this type of clearance. If you are an agency provider or other entity, please e-mail sfcs.clearance@aps.edu for Unsupervised Volunteer Clearance information.
• Please do not make an appointment to be fingerprinted until you have received e-mail instructions from APS to do so.

Supervised Volunteers

Supervised Volunteers whose access to students must always have line-of-sight supervision by an APS staff member who is not Food and Nutrition.

• You can renew or request a Supervised Volunteer Clearance below

Field Trip Volunteers

Field Trip Volunteers must have a valid clearance of either type, and is required of anyone accompanying the school group.

• Volunteers who will be out of line-of-sight of an APS staff member who is not a Food & Nutrition staff, at any time must have the Unsupervised Volunteer Clearance.
• Supervised Volunteers on field trips must be in the line of sight of an APS staff, who is not a Food & Nutrition employee at all times - no exceptions. Teachers and field trip sponsors may limit the number of supervised volunteers during field trips if line-of-sight supervision is not possible at all times.

• All APS background checks are valid for two years.
  
• After completing and submitting the Volunteer Clearance Request, the background check may take 7 to 10 business days to process. Clearance decisions may take longer during busy times or if any instances appear in the background check.
• You must complete the Payment Section in the Volunteer Clearance Request Form before you can submit your application and begin the background clearance process.

Contact sfcs.clearance@aps.edu or call (505) 830-6240 for more information on Unsupervised Volunteer background clearance..

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